Elephants, Guitars & Ronnie James Dio

What do the three subjects mentioned in the headline have in common? The answer inside.

We’ll take it in order. The elephants hail from the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project (AEACP), the organization dedicated to preserving the animals. The guitars are the objects of the pachyderms’ artistic endeavors with the trunked-up animals painting the instruments to help benefit the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up & Shout Cancer Fund.

All that painting takes place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where the elephants are joined by Stand Up & Shout president/founder Wendy Dio, board chair Gloria Butler and medical director Dr. Sandeep Kapoor as well as Black Sabbath/Heaven And Hell bassist Geezer Butler and photog Mark Weiss. The guitars were donated by the ESP Guitar Company.

How do elephants painting guitars help the cancer fund named after the late, great rock singer who succumbed to the disease in 2010? Funds raised by auctioning off the instruments will be split 50-50 by the cancer fund and the AEACP. For more info, click here for the Ronnie James Dio website and here for the Asian Elephant Art & Conservation Project HQ.